My contribution to this week’s Weekly Photo Challenge; Foreshadow, could better be named ‘Aftershadow’

On our Maiden voyage of our new boat Lady C, our voyage was to bring her from one side of Langstone Bridge to the other….. the long way.

The bridge is too low for us to navigate without de-masting, so we decided to race the tide around Hayling Island and try to get all the way around before we ran out of water. We knew the journey would take us three or four hours, so we needed to leave as soon as there was enough water on the Langstone Harbour side and get to the mooring on the other side in Chichester Harbour before the tide had gone out too far. On our last boat Egeria we would have managed no problem as her engine was more powerful, but with a new boat, fighting the tide almost the whole way, we were worried we might not make it. We did have the option of spending the day in Northney Marina if we were too late, but we preferred making it to our mooring in time if we could

The evening before our trip everything looked good

All looks well

Red Sky at Night….

There was no hint in the skies of anything to prevent our journey, or anything to foreshadow what we were to wake up to the following morning!

We set our alarms for 5.30am so we would be on the boat and ready to set sail the minute there was enough water! Little did we expect…….

Not to be able to see the boat!

We waited several hours, and then, being intrepid adventurers, we decided that since time and tide wait for no man, we would set off into the unknown…. helped only by our GPS!

Click on any of the thumbnails of our voyage to see the photos full size;

The bridge we had to circumnavigate

The sun trying to peep through

Our first marker post

is this one sideways…. or are we?

Another brave sailor

Without this it would have been madness to set sail!

Pea soup all around

At last the fog becan to clear

A lone waterboarder appeared from the mist

The sun began to peep through the mists

Portsmouth mast

A ‘Phoenix Breakwater’ wreck

The mist is coming back

Above the white boat, the cloud remains

Arriving in Chichester Harbour in clear sunshine

A Familiar landmark

We made it back to land just in time!

We made it round in one piece, to tell the tale….. but it is very unnerving to be on a boat and to have no idea where you are. Without a GPS it would be easy to completely lose your sense of direction!